CPL Match 7 – Jamaica Tallawahs V St Lucia Stars – Fantasy Preview

A run of thirteen-straight losses for the St Lucia Stars in the CPL has this team at breaking point. In saying that, St Lucia was quite competitive against Guyana and just fell short of victory. Unfortunately the growing-losing streak isn’t behind them yet though, and there’s no-doubting that the Tallawahs will be looking to use that to their advantage in this next match.

Jamaica opened their CPL18 campaign in extravagant style as they defeated the impressive Trinbago Knight Riders in a slogging-frenzy. Tallawahs skipper Andre Russell came out on top as the unlikely victor as he monstered Trinbago’s attack in a destructive display of hitting to get his side home by four wickets. Russell recorded the fastest CPL century as he blasted his way to an unbeaten 121 off just 49 deliveries, that’s insane! The Tallawahs all-rounder probably possesses more X factor than anyone else in the competition, he averages just 25.40 with the bat in T20 cricket but has the ability to turn a match on its head with a quick-fire 60+ score every now and then. Russell is the complete package, just before that cataclysmic knock with the bat he produced a hat-trick with the ball claiming the three big wickets of McCullum, Darren Bravo and Ramdin. Jamaica’s opening match was the Andre Russell show, he’s not always going to produce those sorts of performances which leads me to my next point. A second-ball duck for Andre McCarthy in Jamaica’s opening game wouldn’t have done his confidence any favours, but he’s got the stats to back up his talent from last year’s CPL. Among McCarthy is Kiwi Ross Taylor & Windies duo Johnson Charles and Rovman Powell. Starting to find his feet at International level for the West Indies, Powell will play a pivotal role in the middle-lower order if the likes of Charles, McCarthy and Taylor are dismissed cheaply. The pressure is on Krishmar Santokie to back up last year’s CPL with another big tournament with the ball, his 1/41 wasn’t all that promising though. While Russell will look to himself to take wickets as well, overseas spinners Adam Zampa and Imad Wasim must impact the contest, and they have a big opportunity to do so against the confidence-sapped Stars.

The Stars put up an enormous amount of fight in an attempt to break their dreary-losing streak, but it wasn’t to be marking the continuation of 13 consecutive losses. At one point, they had the Tallawahs in panic mode with both Lendl Simmons and Kieron Pollard starting to find their range with the willow. It was a trademark Lendl Simmons knock featuring five sixes in his 45 before he was brilliantly caught behind by Ronchi, while Pollard looked like he was going to muscle his side home which didn’t amount to a whole lot in the end. St Lucia’s batting once again fell away at an alarming rate towards the end of the innings, the depth required just doesn’t seem to be there at the moment. Adding to the growing list of concerns for the Stars, their best performer with the bat in CPL17 hasn’t been able to advance his innings past 20 which is very-unlike Andre Fletcher. David Warner’s form isn’t exactly pleasing either, he looks jittery at the crease which is probably reflective of his scores (9 & 11) so far. The life of the party Darren Sammy was dropped which probably tells you where St Lucia are at, if this continues they could break some records for all the wrong reasons. 17-year-old Afghani leggy Qais Ahmad channelled his inner-Rashid Khan as he claimed stunning figures of 3/15 in an otherwise pretty bleak bowling display from the Stars. Pollard will be relying heavily on Tallawahs recruits Kesrick Williams and Mohammad Sami to impact the contest with the ball, they both went wicketless against Guyana and will be looking to rectify that against the Tallawahs. They really need something special out of David Warner or Andre Fletcher to inspire them at the top of the order, starting the innings well will be vital for St Lucia.

Zak Varik is an Australian columnist/writer who specializes in the sports category cricket. With over four years of experience covering all sorts of cricket tournaments around the world, Zak has gained extensive knowledge in International cricket as well as domestic.
“I’ve loved watching cricket since I was about 7 years old, my childhood hero was none other than Andrew “Roy” Symonds who probably enhanced my love of the game through the years”.
Zak is now an established writer for FCN (Fantasy Cricket News) and has also previously represented other Blogs during his time as a writer.

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